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Climate Change Activists Dismayed by Some of Bill's Provisions
Today ought to be a joyful day for environmental groups, with a first-ever bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions on the floor in the House of Representatives.
But instead, many green groups seem to be supporting the bill -- now stuffed with benefits for emitters such as utilities, manufacturers and farmers -- while holding their nose.
"We're not saying, 'Kill the bill,' " said Frank O'Donnell, of the group Clean Air Watch. "But we're saying it sure as heck ought to get better in the Senate, or it's going to be a sorry day."
Already today, at least two liberal House Democrats have criticized the bill for going too easy on polluters, raising the threat that party leaders might have to whip in votes from the left as well as the right.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) issued a statement saying he couldn't support the bill as written: "This energy bill's fine print betrays its laudable purpose. . . . It is too weak to greatly spur new technologies and green jobs."
And Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) said on the House floor that the bill remained too favorable to the coal industry, by providing legal room for new coal-burning plants to continue to be built. An aide said that Kucinich has not formally said how he will vote on the bill, which is expected to be voted on this afternoon.
Some environmental groups -- notably, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth -- have said they oppose the bill, calling it fatally weak.
Many other national groups have not given up their support for the bill's passage but still say it is too friendly to polluters.
Among their objections: The bill allows for widespread use of carbon "offsets," which are credits for either preventing emissions or using plants to take them out of the air. The bill would allow many offsets to be issued for credits overseas, and allow the U.S. Agriculture Department to supervise them on U.S. farms.
"Is a ton of [offsets from] a forest in Uzbekistan really going to be equal to [an offset from] a ton of emissions reductions from a dirty power plant here?" said Dave Hamilton of the Sierra Club.
But Hamilton summed up his organization's attitude this way: They are ambivalent about the bill as currently written, but unambiguous about the need to pass it in the House.
That way, Hamilton said, environmental groups could push the Senate to alter it to their liking.
"Do, at some point, we try to bank what the politics allows?" Hamilton said. "Our judgment in this case is that we're going to keep trying with the bill" in the Senate.
The need to find 60 votes in the Senate, though, might make it difficult to make the bill much stricter on polluters.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), one of the bill's sponsors, said he'd been answering questions about such concerns today while trying to drum up votes on the House floor. He said the bill's cap on greenhouse gas emissions -- calling for a 17 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 -- was strong and unchanged by the recent compromises.
He noted, "We have made it as strong as we can make it."
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Show AllMaybe the Democrats should stop talking about jobs and economic benefits and start talking about the laws of physics, start pushing all the evidence in front of the citizenry, and put it all in a context of national security to pre-empt the brain dead Republican deadenders. The issue isn't about jobs: it's about survival, as a species, and as a nation. A job's not going to keep you alive when there's not enough to eat and the air is choking you with methane and carbon dioxide. The seas are dying now, and so are we. Halfway measures and political compromises won't cut it. At this point millions are going to die because of climate change no matter what we do or don't do. The real question is how many millions more will die because we failed to do what needed to be done.
Yes, those who run the economic profit industry believe that the Second Law of Thermodynamics doesn't apply to them.
Very good commentary: too true.
What is the surprise?
We knew in the first couple of weeks of Obama's presidency where he was taking us after he started appointing nothing but corporate insiders to his cabinet. Don't act shocked. It is the way the system works.
Obama ran as a change agent and it got him elected. But as we have seen Obama does not have the character we needed to actually change the way Washington works (even though he told us he did) the system changes the man; the man does not change the system.
The only authentic empowerment open to us is our own personal action to order our lives to sustainable options.
Without that, the world you are leaving to future generations is going to be bleak. If that does not move you, nothing will.
elohim June 27th, 2009 10:10 am.........The only thing that moves the average American "sheeple" is the death of some icon! Issues of health, rights, ecology, war and peace, genocide and false flags are way down on the list.
You mean after FISA, you had to wait until he appointed his administration to realize this?
It is pathetic that these so-called leaders do not have the courage and the brains to put life before profit..again...still. Do we need more proof of their incompetence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onOAN7D5nv8
It's not going to get stronger in the Senate. Only weaker.
This bill is simply an attack on the American people, a reward to Corporate America and a betrayal of their responsibilities by Congress.....nothing new.
The bill is way too little too late,and the carbon offsets should be targeted to new forests and crops that are carbon neutral in thier production.One example would be credits for industrial Hemp farmed with Hempseed oil diesel fuel,or cellulosic ethanol farmed with ethanol from its'production.This bill will end up enriching the polluters and creating new shady investment vehicles instead of reducing greenhouse gas emmissions.It is top heavy bottom light and what we need is a point source carbon tax on polluters which can't be passed on to consumers.Don't count on the Senate to improve this mess,the House version was pushed through so fast that few could even review the amended bill. peace
This Bill is a sell out. The health care Bill is a sell out. It is quite clear who the members of Congress represent and it sure isn't us (the American People). I say we don't forget when 2010 comes and do NOT vote the lesser of two evils. We need to make a stand and start working now in getting third party candidates who do have backbone elected across this country. It is 2009 and we have time to organize, but I fear that people will just forget and come election day the Democrats will get a free pass.
I just left my nephew's graduation ceremony. Throughout the whole thing I kept welling up. I have two girls who will supposedly graduate from this same school. They are 12 an 9 yrs old. My welling up of tears would come because I am not sure if this will happenfor them. Not because of any thing they may or may not do. But more because of ALL OUR ISSUES, climate change, energy problems and all that are related.
Sometimes, I get days when I have positive feelings. I imagine that even the small steps we are making will grow and will make a difference.
But other days, I am totally in a cloud of black fog. The pessimism is almost overwhelming.
Watching the ceremony was almost difficult. I graduated from the same school in 1975. I went moved to Long Island pretty much right away. Now, I'm back. I came home. But watching this event today, brought back memories of how I was when I was young. Heck, even as of a few tears ago, I still had that spark, inspiration and feeling of being pulled forward by dreams of a future I can continue to build.
but not really any more. I don't have the hope or the spring in my step. This is not because of being 52 years old. BUT I must-must keep going. I have to nurture my girls hope, I have to nurture their inspiration. I have given a lot of thought to this. I can not allow my black outlook affect them. That would be cruelty. I do however, try to explain to them what is going on. They get some info at school. I also try to give them info about survival. Like pointing our the peas and beans growing in the garden. They need to be able to recognize edible plants. I don't force them to weed etc yet but coax them into helping. I don't want them to hate it. Many things I try to pass on to them. Like how important love is, compared to money.
theinitiate, in 1853 a Unitarian minister and abolitionist, Theodore Parker said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice". He died before the end of slavery, but he lived in the serenity of faith that ultimately justice would prevail.
I believe that humankind is still in it's infancy. Consider all the close calls so many children survive. Not all do, but many. Genetic studies indicate severe population contractions twice in ancient history, perhaps as low as 2000 individuals. Once around 170,000 years ago, and another around 70,000 years ago. The last one was at the time of a volcano that produced drastic climate change.
We are undergoing a change in spiritual consciousness, an increasing recognition that we are interconnected. More and more people are drawn to cooperation instead of conflict to resolve differences. But we are kind of on the bottom steps of this ladder. Individually all we can do is the right thing and take comfort in that. And we meet more and more people who are doing just that. And we can model right action for the young. They may not appear to be paying attention, but they are processing that information. Give them time.
My son had a teacher who said the kids move on and she doesn't know if what she did made any difference. I told her we are Johnny Appleseeds. Our job is to plant seeds, not to keep looking back to see what is sprouting. Everything we do affects the universe. So love what you're doing! And trust that no matter what is going on, justice will ultimately prevail. How many Southern plantation slaves who felt chains and whips would ever have imagined that a black man would be president? Some of us may be pissed as Hell at his performance (I am) but he has given Black people a huge boost of confidence and I say good for that.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Very well said, Kathy.
Paul Krugman wrote yesterday:
"The point is that if you're making big policy changes, the final form of the policy has to be good enough to do the job. You might think that half a loaf is always better than none - but it isn't if the failure of half-measures ends up discrediting your whole policy approach."
This bill is significantly less helpful than doing nothing. And the Senate will only make it even worse.
good luck, initiate. it's hard to avoid the darkness. i hope you're able to pass along to your children a healthy dose of that pessimism, for it will, in addition to all you are currently doing, help them stare reality in the face.
so much better to be pessimistic than to have one's vision clouded with rose-colored glasses.
and hopefully you are able to shield your children from the last two days of msm's disgusting and pathetic attempt at news journalism as it sucks on the tit of the passing of america's greatest freak show.
The Living Dead Zombie Republiklans will hang together under the drunkard man-tanned Bohner (pronounced Boner) as he corrals his sheeple yet again, and prevents meaningful progress from being made. And the obstructionist neo-confederate Republiklansman McConnell will do the same in the Senate. They do not care how many people die, or even if the planet dies, as they have amply proven. They have an agenda.
The effect of the neocon corporate-funded rightwing propaganda noise machine cannot be underestimated. It is the only voice allowed on Armed Forces Radio, for example. And if Obama is disliked here in CD, he is the poster boy of hatred for the rightwingers, who, believe me, still think they are going to rise from the dead in 2010 and 2012, and crush all progressive change altogether, and destroy any vestiges of socialism, like Social(ist) Security and Medicare. To them, Obama is a Communist and a Socialist. How insane are they? Plenty.
Rather than make any progress for life on Earth. the Republiklans want to roll back progress, right back to slave days on the plantations. Their slogan? Republiklans are making sure that you're on your own in a dog-eat-dog world.
As far as the climate bill, lately, I have been on the receiving end of violent yelling rants against the very meager progress of carbon cap-and-trade as a left-wing plot to darken America, made by that demon Al Gore. This is the new propaganda being spoon-fed by Fox tv and AM radio to their violent volk. Just like they now blame the bailout on Obama instead of the past decades of national ruin under neo-con rule, especially the last eight miserable Bushite years (except for the rich and the true-believer dead-enders.)
If we cannot agree on even this feeble attempt at curbing the greenhouse effect, then there is no hope. No hope unless the Republiklans are driven out of government, at all levels, as they are a terrorist threat to the nation. Anyway, I thought the right-wingers and neo-confederates hated government, so why are they there? They are there as parasites to kill the host, and to bleed it out for their own selfish gain (reference big Dick Cheney).
Obama is as weak as we the people make him. He is surrounded by the same bunch of 'professionals' that have been in DC for decades. How is he then to make any progress? By royal decree? Sure, Obama is not the best that can be imagined, but that person has yet to appear on the ballot in a meaningful way (And, be serious, I am not counting vanity gadfly candidates that cannot connect with the numbers of voters necessary.)
So would some class traitor please spend their billions on a new environmental and progressive party (Ross Perot proved it can be done) so we can have the better choice we deserve, or take over the corporate-wing-DLC-run Democrats, so the Dems won't have to go hat-in-hand to the same smarmy banksters that own the Republiklans? So when voting next time our choices are not between, as Bill Maher puts it, the Center-Right Party of the Democrats and the Crazy Party of the Republiklans.
Anyone? Anyone rich believe? Before it is too late?
Allowing some coal and other regressive measures to remain in order to pass the bill more easily, taking the heat off some Dems from regressive states, could have been a good strategy. Now that Obama is using signing statements, he could decide to ignore provisions like this.
There is still hope.
Oh, Jeeeez.......
It's more likely that Obama will sign the bill using a lump of coal as his pen.
Given that time's running out on account of perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse = doomsday, what good these half-way measures on global warming, universal health care, reform of banking & finance, name it? No good, that's what, because these measures are meant to fail, and, when this happens we can expect a right wing chorus of "Told ya so, told ya so, the government's the problem, not the solution." - And there goes any chance for change we can believe in. But if not our government, what? We rise up en masse, that's what, with everyone being a leader. Otherwise? There is no otherwise.
There is no longer any point in following this, or being pessimistic.
How can you expect Congress-critters to understand the situation--their only concern is getting re-elected. They don't have science or engineering backgrounds.
The Energy Secretary is clueless--at least with respect to the vast amount of renewable energy resources that are at our disposal in the larger sense.
The people have the power to force a solution--I mean THE SOLUTION.
Go to http://vortexengine.ca
Read and try to understand this relatively simple concept of the Atmospheric Vortex Engine, and learn what it can do. Discuss it with your friends--call your local university and ask the Chair of the Atmospheric Science department if he is aware there is a valid scientific reason it won't work. Don't accept dismissive or soft answers. He won't have any valid reasons why it won't work.
It's not Rocket Science--really. The purpose of this post is to encourage interested people to understand that phenomenal amounts of energy are unleashed by natural processes. By mimicking natural phenomenon, we can also can tap into the same energy reservoir.
Hurricanes transport the heat in warm seawater into the upper troposphere where it can more easily radiated to outer space. Some of the energy is converted to the kinetic energy of winds before it is finally dissipated as friction.
If we can simulate them on a much smaller scale, we can capture this kinetic energy. It would be cheaper than electricity form coal--honest.
We need to build a movement from the bottom up. Tell every curios person you know to learn about it, and pass the information on to others. Use the Internet.
Answers are needed NOW as to how to push this technology forward and make it operational in a couple of years. We don't have the luxury of waiting until 2020, much less 2030 or 2050. Everybody needs to WAKE UP NOW.
King C-O-N-G will try to suppress it, because they can't make a profit out of it, and their own resources would be rendered worthless by its development and adoption as the primary means of producing electricity. DON'T YOU LET THEM SUCCEED IN SUPPRESSING IT.
May the AVE-Force be with us, each and every one.
"That way, Hamilton said, environmental groups could push the Senate to alter it to their liking."
What, in the name of CO2, makes him think that an improved version could possibly make it through the Senate with its barely-a-majority of Democrats? It "needs" to be passed in the House so that an even weaker version will be put through the Senate. A version so weak it'll not be a protection, but further carte blanche for industry to fail to reduce emissions. More short-term, short-sighted service to corporate interests that pretends to be reform. It will, of course, be hailed in the media as progressive. And the US will continue its role as leading obstructionist and foot dragger.
This effort to create a meaningful policy on climate change strikes me as the same as our hopeless and hapless efforts to create health care reform. The same old stuff, only worse.
How nice of our elected officials to issue "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" to their corporate benefactors to continue poisoning the American public. Self defense requires that We-The-People overthrow this corporate tyrany.
Mr. Transparency Obama refuses to release his White House recordsof meetings with his Big Coal bosses.
ACES (if it survives the senate) and provisions in the stimulus package are a start to developing a green economy. At a minimum it will put more new technology on the shelf, give the US some credibility at Copenhagen and get the ball rolling for conservation, smart grid, CSP... The more we get done starting now, the better we will be prepared when climate change really starts rocking our boat in 20 years or so.
We have wasted at least 8 years already. If ACES doesn't become law and the Repubs get back in, expect absolutely no progress at all.
Here we go, more cosmetic "change we can deceive in".